White House Confirms Its Chief of Staff Was Hacked

A personal email account of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was hacked, according to an email obtained by Buzzfeed via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. "As we discussed ... my folks are nervous about the emails you send and ask that you no longer include them on any postings," Kelly wrote. "Then there is hacking which one of my own personal accounts has suffered recently. I do almost everything now by phone or face-to-face comms."

Tech support staff discovered the suspected breach after Kelly turned his phone in to White House tech support this summer complaining that it wasn’t working or updating software properly. Kelly told the staffers the phone hadn’t been working properly for months, according to the officials.

It's not clear if Kelly used the email account to conduct government business or if there was anything sensitive on it. Shortly after Trump's inauguration, the NSA reportedly told Trump administration officials to stop using personal cellphones and email accounts, as they could be vulnerable to spying by Russia, China and other US adversaries. (Engadget, June 11, 2018)